Shortly before he was sentenced on federal corruption charges in 2020, Sheldon Silver, the onetime all-powerful speaker of the New York State Assembly, sought to avoid incarceration. Disgraced, in declining health, at the end of a protracted series of appeals and retrials, he wrote a letter to the trial judge pleading for mercy: “I pray I will not die in prison,” he implored, adding that he was “broken-hearted” that his misconduct had undermined public faith in the government.

Silver almost got his wish. Last month, he died at a community hospital in Massachusetts but was still in federal custody, having recently been moved there from the nearby Devens Federal Medical Center. The cause of death was undisclosed, but he had a history of cancer and kidney disease and was three weeks short of his 78th birthday.